Spring = Music

Austinites are lucky when it comes to the live music scene. The local scene is amazingly active, with dozens if not hundreds of shows going on most days. It also attracts a great variety of regional artists -- blues, rock, latin and music from Louisiana are popular -- and big-time acts in almost every genre. Plus the festivals -- SXSW, ACL, and lots of other smaller ones like Mess With Texas, the Reggae Festival and the Fun Fun Fun Festival.

There is a noticeable lull, though, during the late fall and winter. Come April or so, the season starts to kick into gear again, and by May there's something good going on almost every weekend.

A few weekends ago, we caught our first show at Stubb's Barbecue. Stubb's sells a pretty well known brand of its sauces in stores across the U.S. Stubb's also has a popular, spacious barbecue restaurant downtown in the heart of the club district along East 6th and Red River. The restaurant has two stages: a small indoor room and a large outdoor venue, but small enough so that you know you'll find a good spot no matter when you show up. Plus the BBQ is supposed to be decent. No wonder people like Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth call Stubb's their favorite club to play in the U.S.

We went to see the Raconteurs on the first night of a two night stand at Stubb's. The Raconteurs are most well known for being the second band of Jack White of the White Stripes. They play a straight-ahead classic hard rock style that lends itself well to the stage. Now that they have two albums out, they were able to play probably a bit longer than they did when they first toured in 2006. They played 19 songs over one set plus one encore. Two thumbs up for the show and the venue.


Video for Steady As She Goes

Eight days later, we caught a Wilco show at Stubb's, who were also there for a two night stand. We had seen them a few times before, but this show was one of the best. The band has featured a lot of departures and additions over the years, but the current line-up has been together for a while now and can really play beautifully live. Also, Wilco recently played a five night series at a hall in Chicago where, over those days, they ran through their entire catelog of songs. Since then, they've been incorporating older songs into their set, including a few songs we'd never seen them play before. For Hoodoo Voodoo, from the first volume of the Mermaid Avenue collaboration with Billy Bragg, Pat Sansone picked up a guitar and had a memorable duel with "guitar god" Nels Cline, trading riffs like welterweights. Jeff Tweedy traded instruments with John Stirratt, who took a rare turn at lead for It's Just That Simple from first album A.M. Great stuff.

You can find setlists and all sorts of other information on Wilco shows at WilcoBase, including the Austin show.

A few weeks later, we went to another legendary venue for the first time, Antone's. Stevie Ray Vaughan took a big step toward becoming a star and legend there. That night, we saw a great show by Gary Clark, Jr. I had barely heard him, but had read good things. Clark played guitar with a bass and drum rounding out his trio, and ripped through a an energetic, eccestric set of bluesy, hard, roots rock, with occasional moments of more modern rock that conjured up U2 of all bands to a few of the people in our party. Maybe you've heard of Clark from his role in the movie Honeydripper? Potentially a star on the rise.


Gary Clark Jr. with the Honeydripper All-Star Band

The highlight of the night might have come after the show. On the way home, we stopped with some friends at Mrs. Johnson's Bakery, an Austin landmark. Mrs. Johnson's stays open well past midnight, serving a tempting variety of doughnuts, kolache and other treats to the many people working their way home after a night out. Drive-through only. Plus they always throw in a free doughnut, even if you only order one yourself. Rachel and I both liked the cake doughnuts were great -- "[A] delicious cake doughnut, of which I crave more," raves Rachel!

More and more good shows are popping up on the schedule. The schedule for ACL (Austin City Limits music festival) was just released too, so there's that to start studying. Stay wired.